[2] These medieval structures had in turn been built on the Roman forum of Florentia, in particular on the temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad, on the large baths behind it, towards the west, and on a domus at Via Pellicceria.

[3] The large building, erected to a design by architect Vincenzo Micheli (1895), defines itself as a scenographic backdrop to the square, laid out from 1883 with the destruction of the Mercato Vecchio and the Jewish pond.

[4] The three statues were mockingly renamed by the Florentines with the names of three prostitutes of the period, as can be found in some satirical sonnets of the time by Vamba and others: the Starnotti or Schiccherona, a tenant of Russian origin whose surname was Starnowka; then the Cambarbini and the Trattienghi.

Also on the same side, in the large rooms once occupied by the Edison cinema (the first Florentine cinema opened in 1900 in via degli Strozzi with access from number 1 and in 1901 moved under the porticoes), was the Edison bookshop from 1996 to 2012, spread over four floors, with long opening hours, an internal cafeteria and reading spaces with Internet locations, elements that had made it one of the city’s most popular meeting places.

The body to the left of the archway, long occupied on the ground floor by the BNL bank, instead saw the opening of the Apple store in September 2015, designed by Giacomo Sicuro.